LSU Invitational features No. 1 Tigers, No. 2 Razorbacks

BATON ROUGE – A 10-team field assembled for Saturday’s LSU Invitational at Bernie Moore Stadium will include the top two nationally ranked teams in the No. 1 host Tigers and No. 2 Arkansas.

Additional top 25 teams in the current national ratings index entered include No. 7 Florida, No. 8 Georgia, No. 11 Ole Miss, and No. 21 Florida State. Other teams in the meet include Auburn, Georgia Tech, Indian Hills CC, and McNeese State.

LSU has a pair of collegiate leaders in Brianna Lyston with a 22.35 in the 200m along with Michaela Rose with a 1:58.37 in the 800m. Arkansas’ Kaylyn Brown is the outdoor world leader in the 400m with a 49.95 and the Razorbacks have a collegiate leading time of 3:26.10 in the 4 x 400m relay.

Between the two schools, Arkansas has seven top 5 marks this outdoor season and 11 top 10 marks. LSU counters with six top 5 marks and 13 top 10 marks.

“It’s a one-day meet, and we should be able to get a lot done in that one day,” stated Arkansas women’s head coach Chris Johnson. “With only 10 teams the heats will be limited in most events.

“I think it will be a really good track and field meet with a lot of our conference foes in this meet a couple of weeks before the conference meet. We’ll get some things done that we need to get done. It’ll be important for us to get some head-to-head competition.”

Live results for the LSU Invitational will be available at this link: https://live.deltatiming.com/meets/32800. No live streaming is available.

Rachel Glenn, the U.S. leader in the 400m hurdles at 54.91, is scheduled to race in the event at LSU as well as high jump. Glenn currently ranks second among collegians and fifth in the world for the 400m hurdles. This will be her first outdoor competition in the high jump after equaling the collegiate record to win the NCAA Indoor title.

“We plan on doing both events with Rachel,” said Johnson. “She hasn’t high jumped since NCAA Indoors. We want to see how she handles both events on the same day and see how she manages it.”

Kaylyn Brown will race in the 200m along with teammates Amber Anning, Rosey Effiong, Ariane Linton, Nickisha Pryce, and Mekenze Kelley.

Effiong and Pryce will double up in the 400m and are joined by Ashanti Denton, Aaliyah Pyatt, and Joanne Reid. Linton will also contest the 100m.

“Those events we’re really strong in and we’ll have a few doubling in the 200m and 400m just because some regional mark situations,” noted Johnson. “We need to improve on some marks thus far.

“With a couple of those young ladies they ran some really good times, but the wind was over the allowable. So, we’re hopeful that the wind can kind of lay down so we can get some good seed marks for the SEC meet and regional marks in the 200m.”

Racing at 800m for Arkansas will be Analisse Batista, Ainsley Erzen, Chachi Gonzales, and Sanu Jallow.

Glenn and Sydney Billington are scheduled to high jump while Nia Robinson is entered in the long jump. The Razorback crew pole vaulting includes Marin Chamberlin, Rachel Homoly, and Hannah Estes.

Arkansas alums competing at the LSU Invitational include Jada Baylark (100m, 200m), Ackera Nugent (100m hurdles, 200m), Shafiqua Maloney (400m), and Paris Peoples (400m).

Professionals training in Fayetteville entered in the meet include Shamier Little (400m hurdles), Alexis Holmes (200m, 400m), Andrenette Knight (200m, 400m), and Anna Cockrell (400m hurdles).

International Competition

Arkansas alum Taliyah Brooks will be among a field of 28 entrants from 16 countries for the heptathlon at the 37th MultiStars competition held in Brescia, Italy. The event is Gold Level on the World Athletics combined events tour.

The heptathlon begins Saturday, April 27, at 11:30 a.m. (4:30 a.m. CT) and will be streamed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePneNh9h5fs. On Sunday, April 28, the heptathlon resumes at 10:45 a.m. (3:45 a.m. CT) and will be streamed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgbYyrXIBis.